The Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education will welcome two new trustees, joining a trio of incumbents following final results of the municipal election.--NEWS FILE PHOTO
asmith@medicinehatnews.com
Unofficial final vote counts are in as of Wednesday night, with two new faces joining the Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education.
The finished count points to Chuck Hellman (921), Kathy Glasgo (857), Richard Mastel (683), Bernard Kinch (508) and Raymond West (481) making up the board, with Glasgo, Mastel and Kinch returning as incumbents.
“It’s still kind of weird to walk into a voting office and see your name on a ballot, but it’s always a humbling experience and it’s exciting,” said Glasgo.
She tells the News she is thrilled to be able to continue her work, especially on the upcoming new school for the division. Also high on her list is continuing to lobby government to protect the right of Catholic school divisions to continue delivering Catholic education.
“We are the teaching arm of the church and that’s really important, so we have to make sure that we follow canon law, that we follow all the teachings and values of the church,” said Glasgo. “We know other faiths are loving that, and they want to bring their kids here, because they don’t want a lot of the stuff that we don’t teach.”
Hellman is new to the board, though he has a lot of experience with other forms of board governance and as deputy superintendent, he looks forward to taking on the new role.
He has his eyes fixed firmly on the near future, focused on the upcoming organizational meeting and getting into the day-to-day business at MHCBE.
“I’m just thankful that people think I have the qualities they were looking for in the trusteeship,” said Hellman. “I really am just thankful for all the people who believed I could do a good job.”
Mastel is looking back on previous boards he’s served on and believes this will be a strong one as well. He expressed his gratitude to the voters for allowing him to continue building what he has been working on for the past four terms.
“The whole time that I’ve been on the board, we’ve had very strong boards,” said Mastel. “I’m encouraged to see that we have a couple of new board members, as well.
“Our primary focus is to make sure that our classrooms are permeated with Catholic faith. Our No. 1 priority is to teach the curriculum from a Catholic point of view.”
Mastel aims to continue working with the district chaplain, parish priests and staff to ensure they continue to do just that.
West, the other new face and a retired teacher, says the past several days had been somewhat difficult waiting for results due to the required hand-counting. But now that he’s been chosen by the voters of Medicine Hat, he has one striking priority.
“My top priority is to work with other school boards, or try and coordinate other school boards to lobby the government, come to an agreement and get the kids back in school,” said West.
The Medicine Hat News was unable to reach Kinch by press time for comment.
